The Dragon Reborn - Review 

Is The Dragon Reborn one of your favorite WoT books?

Daniel: How can Mat evades a Forsaken this easily? Mat: You could say I got... somewhat... lucky baby ;)

It's interesting to see how Robert Jordans writing improves over the first three books, and how you can practically feel him say "oh shit, Mat's a terrible character, I gotta fix this somehow"

I had heard people joke about how often Nynaeve plays with her hair, and before I read this book I thought it was overblown... I now understand, and I am curious how that many instances got through editing. Also, a woman is able to just cross her arms, you do not need to say crosses arms under their breasts.

The Mat beatdown of the two golden boys is a great scene. But for me the one scene that always stuck with me is The PoV scene of Perrin in Easing the Badger. Even knowing what is coming on re-reads I have to force myself to notice what is happening. Brilliantly written.

Started my first readthrough of WoT about a month ago, just finished Dragon Reborn and I'm part-way through The Shadow Rising (no spoilers please). Just wanted to say that one of the things that keeps me reading (aside from the epicness) when I think of how much I still have left to read is knowing I can come and watch your summary and review videos. I look forward to the next 10!

This video gets 10/10 for memeability alone. 11/10 for a fantastic review as usual. Also TDR has *that* one fight. The fight that awakens a beast of a character. You all know who I mean. :D

You mean the Dragon LeBron? *first to say it*

I really need to start looking in the dictionary at the back when characters are introduced. I’ve been reading faile’s name as fail and it is far to late for me to shift from egwene as “egg-when” to “egg-wayne” and nynaeve as “nye-nave” to “nye-neev.”

I just started the eye of the world. And I am currently enjoying it so far

14K massive Congrats I’ll cross my fingers for 15K soon

Favorite book so far in the series! Perrin was so good in this one. Also love the lucky Mat scenes lol. Ty for convincing me to read WoT with your content :)

I kind of like to jokingly compare Matt’s character shift/ focus to be like Thor’s character in Ragnarock (Soft reboot but it’s somewhat explainable/ believable in universe & results in such an amazing character that no one really minds)

After reading the first 3 books, dragon reborn is definately the best book for me. Perfect pacing with constant hype moments. Perrin arc was my favorite overall but also enjoyed Mat's o-so-free and funny arc with Thom. Climax at Tear lived up to the massive build up from the start and great power build up for Egwene and Nynaeve throughout their course of story. I just wished we got more of Belal. Felt he had more but couldn't show it due to perfect plan of action by Moraine.

Daniel, im reading through WoT for the first time, just finished the dragon reborn. Its fun reading the books and then watching these reviews and just hearing you gush about them.

I am quite happy that you are not doing one wot book pet week because this way I can keep up ahead and then watch your review :D There are awesome things happening in this book. Perrin's story is great and I love everything about it. We finally have Mat and Mat is great. He finally gets some shaping and personality. Rand's insanity is really fucked up and it's fascinating and gripping. I felt like I was hooked because we were chasing him and seeing the ta'veren i action - wedings and funerals... and tbh the bowing of dead people was cool as hell (hahaha) And i am glad that girl trio got some power, even thought that they fuck it up sometimes it was great to read it :D

Finished the series 2 days ago. I walk in the Light now thank you sir. Also when you said Faile doesn't have much growth in this book, and i agree, but i instantly thought 'ooooo she wouldn't like hearing that!' Scary how immersed i was/am in the world.

Kinda spoiler that you reveal that Morgase's new advisor is a Forsaken, although it's quite obvious. Three men all come from nowhere and rise to power in a few weeks, in three different cities at the same time.

Hey Daniel, great review! I am working my way through the WoT series for the first time (currently on book 4) and as I read a lot of other stuff in between, your reviewes happen to be a great way to refresh my memory for the previous books. For any large series, I usually read online a spoilery summary of the last book, but honestly it's so much better to watch a review where someone shares their thoughts and feelings. That really brings me back to my own reading experience. So even when you don't share any major spoilers, it's still easy enough for me to wrap my mind around what has happened so far. So thank you for that! And as for the Dragon Reborn, definitely my favourite so far! Obviously I'm not gonna watch your next reviews for now (I'm too far behind on these books), but I will definitely go back to these videos when the time comes. :)

I think my main complaint with this book is that Rand is a bit too unstable already starting out. I think the reason RJ chose to have Rand almost not be in the book at all was to shift his character from the Rand from the first books to the Rand of the rest of the series. It would've possibly worked even better if Rand was more like "old" Rand in the first chapters.

As much as I loved this book just having finished it, I still have a lot of questions. Where’s my girl Min and what the heck is she up to?? Jordan just sidelined her for this book, I was expecting to see her in Tar Valon and get into some deep conspiracies with Suane Sanche and the three Accepted. Also, for someone so insistent on fighting with Moiraine in that night on Tear, he wasn’t mentioned at all until after. Was expecting more interactions between all of the cast when they reunited too. Also who wanted Mat to stay inside Tar Valon? I don’t think I picked up on which Forsaken wanted him to stay there. Also is it just me or does Rand winning that battle here seem kind of wrong? Like, the dood ran off on his own and turned out to be... right in doing so cuz he wins anyway. It was made clear the Shadow wanted him to pick up the sword at least, but once he did he just won. Would have loved to see Loial get some action in that night too. Like, having to protect Perrin and Faile while they were sleeping with that hedgehog, and having him there as actual protection instead of being written out of getting involved otherwise. But I love what we got in the climax, just kinda wished the epilogue had more time to breathe with more character interaction.

hi Daniel, i´ve been watching your videos for a while and you got me interested in this series so i started reading it on december and i was really falling in love with it up until this book. to be more precise, up until the last part of the book where the battle happens. When i reached that point and i finished the book i was... dissappointed. i was dissappointed because there was this hype throughout the first three books about the forsaken being so strong and stuff that i was expecting so much from them (because they are like the actual villains since the dark one seems to be like a god-thing that doesnt act directly on the world) and in the battle not only were they defeated, they were killed, TWO OF THEM including ishamael (for the third time!!!!! :/) which was supposed to be this super bad guy so... idk i love everything in the series seriously, but the villains just feel like a non-threat despite all the hype around them

My only complaint with the book was bilal and rands fight being interrupted . May be explained in the latter books.

Wow. Great review. I haven't been scouring my subscription box lately so I'm very happy that I stumbled across this

Just finished today. In all honesty this was my least favorite of the first three. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it and the last act was great. The time in tar valon was too dragged. Is this an unpopular opinion?

I just finished the third book. I didn’t know that the guy with Morgan was a forsaken. That is what I thought.

I just started the dragon reborn for the first time. We shall see how it goes

8.47 I legitimately thought my computer was about to explode

I’m gonna become a patron on the 1st.

For me, the problem with the bull rushing until the end was that the buildup was so intense that when Robert Jordan would go on as to be overly descriptive while seemingly trying to bring everything towards the end conclusion of the book. I had no patience! I craved the meat and potatoes of what was going on at times instead of the details. Subconsciously I am thankful for all the description that helped make the world feel more alive and fleshed out, but it was tough at times. Finishing the book felt satisfying because of the ending at least. Just a struggle at times. I just finished Books 1 - 3. I think I’m going to take a break from THE WHEEL OF TIME and dive into some Brandon Sanderson for the first time! If I can keep away for long...

Did anyone else at the start of this video get confused but also excited thinking it was a Comment clap back?

Answering your question as to why Rahvin doesn't notice Mat listening or at least doesn't do anything about it; Arrogance. He doesn't think anyone in this age has the means to stop his plans, just because everything has worked out for him so far. This is actually quite a noticeable weakness with most of the Chosen. All of them think that the channelers in this age are barely half trained children and can't do anything about them and anyone in this age must be stupid because they are nowhere near as technologically advanced as the Age of Legends. Moghedien thinks Nynaeve can't do anything to her because she has a block and didn't have much training and gets beaten in tanchico because Nynaeve gets the idea to actually not just stand there and channel. Then later in Tel'aran'rhiod she thinks she's the undisputed mistress of this world and gets beaten because she can't manage to bring up the willpower to get rid of the A'dam Nynaeve creates with her own will. Lanfear just brushes Moiraine aside and then ignores her, because she doesn't think that Moiraine would try anything not related to saidar, which she would be able to sense and counter easily. Demandred at the Last Battle thinks Lews Therin is commanding the Armies of the Light because, in his opinion, nobody in this age could be a commander of suitable skill to even delay him for a few hours. Granted, Mat is kind of cheating because he has the combined battle experience of pretty much all Generals of a timespan of over a millenium, but still, they're all Generals Demandred would have thought to be incompetent at best. The list goes on, as you may very well be aware. The Chosen are just so drunk with power that they don't realize that the less powerful people of this age have adapted to not being the strongest people around have spent the better part of 3000 years finding ways to work around that successfully.They even have an army of well trained an equipped fanatics working to fight channelers without having their own and, while not extremely successful have proven dangerous enough to Aes Sedai that they stay away from them whenever possible. The Chosen just consider the people of this age to be primitive and act accordingly. And while we see some of them learning relatively quickly, some, like Ishamael have to be beaten 3 times and resurrected in order to stop underestimating their opponents. It would also have been an extremely boring and dark series if the Chosen had been taking their opposition seriously from the beginning because they could have laid the world to waste cooperating, hat they not decided to play around and oppose each other as much if not more than the people that they were supposed to defeat.

This is one of the best I the series? Wow you've really hyped it up in the past but I'm just not feeling it. Most of the characters are unlikable IMO (Mat saves their lives and they suspend him in mid air then drop him down? Made me so angry) and none of the stakes seem real, you can tell me the dark one is super dangerous all you want, but rand doesn't know what the fuck he's doing and he still kicks his ass every interaction. I wouldn't be so mad at that if we got some sense that the dark lord wanted him to think he's winning for some unknown reason. I'm thinking if this book is one of the best in the series maybe I won't commit to the other dozen in the series

Moraine is always surprising. I think I can kill a Forsaken. WTF? Balefire? Girl!

I do love how this one ends ❤️❤️

I’m on book 4, I’d say the first and the third are my second, the ending on the first one was just amazing and I love the third book for the awesome world building. Not saying I didn’t enjoy the second one.

What kind of microphone do you have? Oh yes, and thanks for this review! Lol.

I really need to finish that series

Why does my book club copy of this book have a different page count

What a baby boy!

Ah yes, Mat. Nuff said.🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲

no spoilers please but are there any real stakes? i feel like no ones died yet in this series

Mat is up! He sort of reminds me of a VERY lucky Han Solo. Both are very rougish, scoundrels with a heart of gold that still refuse to recognize their own worth. As for why... Ravin? I think it is him. Anyway, why does he not feel that he is spied upon? Well, firstly Matt is of course ta'veren with all that it entails. It would suck for the Wheel to let Mat get balefired just when his story is really kicking off. Also, as poweful as the forsaken are and even with the wealth of knowledge that they posess from the Age of Legends they are STILL only human. The man is clearly a bit occupied with making sure his rule can not me challenged by any heirs when Morgase dies. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR NEW READERS Rand's madness might be in the early stages here, but again if the world is to spin into the right course the Dragon Reborn can not really go completely bonkers and kill everyone like his... pre-incarnation? To me it almost feels like the madness takes the form of a real Lews Therin that is mad FOR him and it only sometimes spill over to the current wearer of the soul in question. That Rand gets the real memories of his former self is not beyond reason in WoT since they were both the wearer of the reincarnated soul that is currently Rand. I am not sure if this has to do with the madness or maybe the Dark Ones hold over reality slowly eroding the bond that holds things together and thusly eroding the "block" that separates the different incarnation of the Dragon soul. I also feel that this MUST happen for events to take their course. When Nynaeve (my girl!) examines Rand after she found a way to heal madness, at least this particular kind of it sees that Rand is too far gone. BUT Rand seems completely lucid so either he has gone completely round the bend and come to the calm valleys on the other side OR he is protected from it, maybe by the ligh itself? There was a golden glow or something she sensed but could not understand. Something like that. IF it is the madness created by the taint on Saidin that brings forth Lews Therin's memories and ultimately gives Rand the victory, then the Dark One already sealed his fate by doing so to start with. It just took a bit of time. ;-)

Jesus Christ! I wasn't expecting that ear rape.

Hello from France. Did you read the book Myrren's Gift from Fiona mclntosh ?

Wait The Dragon Reborn is one of the best in the series... 😬😬😬... I am not sure i can go through any more of braid tugging and moustache knuckling if this is as good as it gets...

Sweet clap

Rebron

Why are you talking about the rest of the series more than book 3?? I did not come here for comparisons and series spoilers - which you did not specify, btw. I came here for a Review of The Dragon Reborn. I can count the number of videos on RU-vid that I've disliked on my hands, and this video is one of them

I wouldn't mind becoming a patron if it weren't for one thing: Patreon. They're too ideologically driven and censorious.